Assistance with personal care and essential daily living tasks, both within the home and local community. This may include:

• Assistance with getting washed and dressed

Other examples of personal care support may include:

• Sitting services to enable an informal carer to take a break from their caring role
• Support from a communicator-guide for a person with dual sensory impairment
• Assistance for parents to purchase session support for a disabled child

Direct Payments can be used to purchase services from private care providers but most people chose to employ their own personal assistants as this affords people the greatest levels of choice, flexibility and control.

Direct Payments can be used to purchase short breaks and respite care to meet assessed needs. This gives people the opportunity to identify how, when and where they would most benefit from a short break or respite care. This may include:

• A period of respite care in a residential or nursing home setting of the person’s choice
• Support with personal care whilst the person is on holiday
• Additional support at home whilst a carer or family member has a break

It is important to note that the council does not routinely provide holidays to meet people’s assessed needs. However, some of the costs of support/care that the person needs whilst they are on holiday may be covered.

Long term residential and nursing care cannot be purchased using Direct Payments.

There are certain parameters relate to the provision of Direct Payments for respite care and short breaks. The council may set a maximum number of weeks over a certain period that respite care will be provided.  

Carers, parents and family members may wish to use a Direct Payment to arrange overnight short breaks for the person they care for but may wish to look at making more flexible or imaginative arrangements.  

If a private or voluntary organisation is used to provide short breaks for example in a residential home, the facility would need to be approved by the Commission for Social Care Inspection and subject to inspection by the relevant regulatory body.

Direct Payments can be used as an alternative to traditional day care services, usually provided by a day centre. This gives people the opportunity to plan their own community, social and leisure activities by providing the support they need in order to access the activities. It provides people with the support they need in order to continue with family and community life.

Examples may include:

• Assistance with personal care and support whilst the person accessed a leisure pursuit such as going swimming
• Assistance with essential daily living tasks such as undertaking household shopping
• Additional personal care at home whilst an informal or family carer takes a break
• Support to access educational and personal development opportunities
• Individual sessional support for a young person
• A group of people using Direct Payments to contribute towards the costs of running a self directed support group, such as room hire

It is important to note that generally Direct Payments cannot be used to pay for the costs of accessing leisure and social activities, such as admission fees. In addition, Direct Payments should not be used to purchase meals or drinks whilst the person is accessing an activity.

Awaiting information update

Direct Payments can be provided for transport services and can offer the following benefits:

• Increased control for the person over the nature of journeys; times and days of journey and choice in transport provider
• Greater consistency and continuity in driver and/or escort
• More effective use of the funds available and greater flexibility in journeys travelled

For a person to be eligible to receive Direct Payments for transport, all of the following circumstances must apply:

• They must be eligible for services from the council as set out in the Eligibility Framework
• Transport will only be provided where people are unable to make their own transport arrangements or does not have access to private or public transport. The council may also take into account whether the person receives the mobility component of Disability Living Allowance or where they have access to a Motability vehicle funded by their DLA.
• Provision of transport will only be considered to enable people to travel to and from services they are assessed as needing to meet their social care needs following an Adult Care Assessment. Therefore, this excludes transport to educational and leisure activities.

Guidance notes and a matrix have been produced by the council to calculate Direct Payments for transport provision; this information should be read in conjunction with the Adult and Community Services Transport Policy.

As stated elsewhere in this guidance, Direct Payments cannot be used to purchase permanent or long-term residential or nursing care.  

However, in exceptional circumstances, Direct Payments may also be used to enable people who are living in residential care homes to have temporary access to Direct Payments to experience independent living arrangements before making a commitment to moving out of residential care. Direct Payments can also be used by people living in care homes in order to engage in alternative leisure activities that would not ordinarily be expected to be provided by the residential or nursing home. In these circumstances, the council must be satisfied that the Direct Payment is only be provided to meet extraordinary needs that are outside of the agreement for the provision of residential or nursing care.

A Direct Payment can be provided to enable family and informal carers to purchase the services they are assessed as needing as carers to support them and to maintain their own health and well-being.

A Carers Assessment and Support Plan should be completed to identify the impact of caring on the person’s life along with the support they require to continue caring or to take a break from their caring role.

Carers are able to use Direct Payments to purchase support in any variety of ways including:

• Short breaks for themselves and/or the people they care for;
• Personal assistance within the home;
• Sitting services;
• Social, education and leisure activities;
• Transport costs;
• Equipment
• Relaxation, stress management and holistic therapies.

Some of the intended outcomes of using Direct Payments for carers are:

• Promoting social inclusion through greater opportunities for carers to actively participate in family and community life;
• Greater opportunities for the personal development of carers;
• Promotion of the carer’s health, well-being and coping skills;
• More responsive, timely and consistent methods of providing support, with greater opportunities for creativity;
• Values the essential contribution carers make to family life and the wider community.

Under the service, young people, aged 16-to17-years, are also eligible to receive Direct Payments to support them in their role as young carers and to minimise any difficulties or isolation they may experience in undertaking their caring responsibilities.